Pedro Adolfo de Castro (1895–1936) was a twentieth-century

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

from San Juan,

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

Early years

He was born Pedro Adolfo de Castro Besosa in January 1895, in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York, to Pedro De Castro (1867 - 1928; from

Ceiba, Puerto Rico Ceiba () is both a small town and a municipality in northeast Puerto Rico. It is named after the famous Ceiba tree. Ceiba is located in the north-east coast of the island, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, south of Fajardo, north of Naguabo and sou ...

) and Manuela Mima Besosa (1872 - 1963; from

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...

). His family moved back to Puerto Rico when he was five years old.''Algunos Arquitectos en Miramar.''
Sociedad Historica de Miramar. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Retrieved 16 July 2012.

Schooling

At the age of 19, in 1914, he traveled to New York where he attended school at the Syracuse University, graduating in 1918 with a degree in architecture. He was the first Puerto Rican to graduate from a U.S. school of architecture.

Career

Returning to Puerto Rico in 1918, De Castro Besosa started working at the Puerto Rico Department of the Interior in San Juan, under the direction of Puerto Rico's state architect Adrian Finlayson. During his two-year stay with the government of Puerto Rico (1919-1921), he designed the Puerto Rico Capitol building and the Escuela Central de Santurce building. From his insular government job, Besosa moved to the private sector working for Antonín Nechodoma. There, he designed not only buildings but also lamps, mosaics, furniture, and other products. His private practice was marked by his own interpretation of

Spanish architecture Spanish architecture refers to architecture in any area of what is now Spain, and by Spanish architects worldwide. The term includes buildings which were constructed within the current borders of Spain prior to its existence as a nation, when ...

to define a purely local

Puerto Rican architecture Puerto, a Spanish word meaning ''seaport'', may refer to: Places *El Puerto de Santa María, Andalusia, Spain *Puerto, a seaport town in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines *Puerto Colombia, Colombia *Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela *Puerto Galera, Orient ...

Works

De Castro Besosa was the architect most involved in the development of the architecture of the Condado section of San Juan, and his works can be seen throughout the Condado area. He also designed residential estates such as Castillo Serrallés (1926) and Residencia Jacobo Cabassa (1934), both in Ponce. During the years between 1918 and 1936, De Castro Besosa designed over 160 residential projects, 35

apartment building An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

s, 16

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

s, plus several commercial buildings and civic clubs. He also worked extensively in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

, where he designed and built residential projects as well as the ''Centro de Recreo en Santiago de los Caballeros'' (the Santiago de los Caballeros Recreational Center).''"Paisajes urbanos".''
Carmen Dolores Hernández. In, "1986-2006: Vigesimo Aniversario. Archivo de Arquitectura y Construcción de la Universidad de Puerto Rico (AACUPR)." Escuela de Arquitectura, Universidad de Puerto Rico. 2006. (Her review of the book: "Alarife de sueños / Architect of dreams: Pedro Adolfo de Castro y Besosa" by Enrique Vivoni Farage. San Juan: Archivo de Arquitectura y Construcción de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1999, 224pp.) Retrieved 17 July 2012. Several of his works are listed on the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. Works include: *

Casa de España Casa de España is the headquarters of a private social organization whose members are those of Spanish descent in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Avenida de La Constitución in Old San Juan. History The building was designed in a Moorish Revival styl ...

, Ponce de Leon Ave.,

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the juri ...

(de Castro, Pedro), NRHP-listed * Castillo Serrallés, Cerro El Vigia,

(de Castro, Pedro Adolfo), NRHP-listed * Edificio Victory Garden, 1001 Ponce de Leon Ave., corner of Elisa Colberg St.,

(De Castro, Pedro), NRHP-listed * House at 659 La Paz Street, 659 La Paz St., Miramar, Puerto Rico (De Castro, Pedro), NRHP-listed * House at 663 La Paz Street, 663 La Paz St., Miramar, Puerto Rico (De Castro, Pedro A.), NRHP-listed * Jacinto Lopez Martinez Grammar School, Calle Norte and Calle San Quintin,

Dorado, Puerto Rico Dorado () is a town and municipality in the northern coast of Puerto Rico, west of San Juan and is located in the northern region of the island, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, north of Toa Alta, east of Vega Alta, and west of Toa Baja. Dorado ...

(de Castro, Pedro Adolfo), NRHP-listed * Casa Villa Caparra, Carretera PR-19 intersección PR-2 No. 251, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico (de Castro, Pedro Adolfo), NRHP-listed

Death

De Castro Besosa died when his small airplane crashed on 18 October 1936. He was 41 years old.

Legacy

Castillo Serrallés, designed by De Castro y Besosa, is listed in the

. One of De Castro Besosa's four children, Pedro A. de Castro Gayá (b. 1919), also became a notable architect in Puerto Rico, designing, among others, the Ponce YMCA Building.''National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Ponce Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) Building.''
Juan Llanes Santos. Gobierno de Puerto Rico. Oficina Estatal de Conservación Histórica de Puerto Rico. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 17 April 2012. Accessed 17 March 2016.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castro Besosa, Pedro Alfonso de 1895 births 1936 deaths Ponce Creole architects People from San Juan, Puerto Rico Syracuse University School of Architecture alumni 20th-century architects